Download - Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 1/12
Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
R.C.H. Koo, J.W. Pappin, D.C. Rule, M.I. Wallace & I.P.H. Yim
Arup, Hong Kong
E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
Hong Kong is mountainous and slope stability has been the subject of local research for
decades. While the static performance of slopes in Hong Kong is relatively well under-
stood, very little attention has been paid to the effect of dynamic load on soil slope sta-
bility. Slopes in Hong Kong subject to dynamic load, including earthquake load and
blasting load are often considered using the conventional pseudo static force approach.
This paper presents a more rational approach of using dynamic time history analyses to
estimate the dynamic load induced displacement in slopes. A realistic earthquake time
history input matching the seismic hazard having a 10% probability being exceeded in
the next 50 years for Hong Kong has been developed. Also, a blasting time history re-
cord measured from a site formation project in Hong Kong has been used. Non-linear
soil dynamic numerical analyses have been carried out using the finite difference pro-
gram FLAC dynamic. The deformation of slopes in terms of displacement time histo-
ries and response spectra have been obtained as output from the analysis and compared
to the site record.
Keywords: dynamic analysis, slopes, blasting, seismic
1. INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong is mountainous and slope stability has been the subject of local research for
decades. While the static performance of slopes in Hong Kong is relatively well under-
stood, little attention has been paid to the effect of dynamic load on soil slope stability.
Slopes in Hong Kong subject to dynamic load, including earthquake load and blasting
load are often considered using the conventional pseudo static force approach. How-
ever, the transient nature of dynamic motion and response may not be fully understood
in such an approach.
This paper presents a simple and rational approach using dynamic time history analyses
to estimate the dynamic load induced displacement in slopes. Non-linear soil dynamic
numerical analyses have been carried out using a finite difference programme FLAC
(for Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua) dynamic. The deformation of slopes in
terms of displacement time histories has been obtained as output from the analyses.
The FLAC dynamic program is widely used in international engineering practice.
1.1 Earthquake Loading in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is located in an area of low to moderate
seismicity. The Chinese Code for seismic design of buildings GB 50011 – 2001, cate-gorises Hong Kong as being in Zone VII+ having a peak horizontal ground acceleration
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 2/12
with a 10% probability of being exceeded in the next 50 years of 15% g. The GEO
(Geotechnical Engineering Office of Hong Kong) Report No. 65 (1996) shows a 10% in
50 year value of about 10% g whereas Pappin et al. (2008) show a range of the 10% in
50 year peak horizontal acceleration varying between 7 and 15% g depending on the at-
tenuation models and calculation methods being used.
Whilst seismic loading is considered in the design of bridges and other major infrastruc-
ture in Hong Kong, the current code of practice for building design does not require any
seismic considerations. A few researchers have studied the seismic effect on slopes in
Hong Kong which provided useful background information to this study. Pappin and
Bowden (1998) studied a range of typical slopes in Hong Kong and quantified the prob-
ability of seismically induced down slope movement based on the pseudo static New-
mark ‘sliding block method’ (described later in Section 2.2). The results show that, for
a slope to be at a meaningful risk from seismic activity, it would need to have a static
factor of safety (FoS) of less than about 1.1 for slopes affecting typical structures and
less than about 1.2 for slopes affecting essential facilities. This is based on the conven-
tional practice that for slope movements of less than 20mm, the risk of damage is lowwhereas a displacement of 100mm is associated with a high risk of failure in most soil
slopes. It then follows on to conclude that current design methods in Hong Kong
which ensure a FoS of 1.4 under the action of severe rainfall are sufficiently conserva-
tive to cater for the effects of seismic loading on slopes. GEO Report No. 98 presents a
preliminary quantitative risk assessment (QRA) on the effects of earthquakes on slope
stability and the likely consequences with respect to loss of life in the event of slope
failures. Based on pseudo static methods the report concludes that the risk of earth-
quake-induced landslides is much smaller than the risk of rain-induced landslides for
pre-1978 man-made slopes that have not been upgraded to current standards.
It follows that the current geotechnical standards appear to be adequate in maintainingthe overall risk of earthquake-induced failures to new or upgraded slopes to a relatively
low level. However it would be comforting have this conclusion confirmed by a more
rational dynamic analysis method.
1.2 Blasting in Hong Kong
Blasting for the excavation of rock is frequently employed in construction in Hong
Kong, especially in tunnelling and site formation works. The blasting works often have
to be carried out in close proximity to existing slopes. GEO Report No. 15 presents the
formulation of an analytical method for routine assessment of the stability of soil slopes
subjected to blasting vibration using the pseudo-static approach. The method incorpo-
rates the dynamic response of soil slopes by a one dimensional multi-degree-freedom
model which takes into consideration higher vibration modes of the slope. The dy-
namic response assumes a simple harmonic blast vibration input at the bedrock and the
magnification factor of the response acceleration is calculated. The critical peak parti-
cle velocity is derived from the pseudo static acceleration required to give rise to a FoS
of the slope of one, by assuming 30 Hz as the natural blasting frequency. However,
this simple method does not allow the variation of the ground motion across the slope as
it models the entire slope moving in unison. Given the very short duration of the blast-
ing loading this method is expected to be overly conservative as stated in the report in
that it ensures that there is no possibility of even very small permanent deformation aris-ing from the blasting. Also, the dynamic deformation of the slope cannot be estimated
by this simple method.
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 3/12
2 DYNAMIC SLOPE STABILITY ANALYSIS
The development of dynamic slope stability analysis and a quick overview on the rela-
tive merit of the various methodologies is presented in this section.
2.1 Earthquake Loading
The simplest method of dynamic slope stability analysis is to compute the FoS using a
pseudo-static approach. Pseudo-static analysis simply extends the static analysis and
determines the FoS of slopes subjected to a static horizontal acceleration. The main
advantages of this approach are that it makes use of the well-established limit
equilibrium method and it is easy to use. However, the transient nature of earthquake
motion may not be understood in this approach. When the FoS is less than unity, the
available strength along the failure surface is less than the driving forces in the slope
and some movement will occur. This does not necessarily mean the slope will fail, as
the movement may occur for a very short period of time and the total displacement can
be small. If the cumulative displacement is large enough, however, the slope will fail.
2.2 Newmark’s Sliding Block Model
Newmark (1965) developed the ‘sliding block method’ to determine earthquake induced
displacement. The method considers the equilibrium of a rigid block on an inclined
plane subjected to horizontal accelerations. Initially the critical acceleration (Ac),
defined as the pseudo static acceleration required to reduce the FoS of the slope to one.
When the earthquake acceleration imposed on the soil mass exceeds Ac, the net
disturbing force on the soil mass will be larger than the net resisting force and
permanent slope displacement will result. Newmark (1965) presented results showing
that insignificant displacement occurs unless the Ac/Am ratio is less than about 0.5,where Am is the peak earthquake ground acceleration. Sarma (1975) extended the work
by incorporating the dominant period of the earthquake motion (T) and Ambraseys &
Menu (1988) extended it further by conducting statistical assessments of the
displacement of slopes based on 48 near-field earthquake records.
2.3 Numerical Modelling of Earthquake-induced Permanent Displacement
One of the major limitations of ‘sliding block method’ is the requirement to pre-define a
sliding plane which generally involves a search for a critical failure surface using limit
equilibrium analyses. However, with the use of numerical finite element analysis, the
displacement can be computed based on the distortion in each element, according to a
non-linear stress-strain relationship. In this study, the finite difference package FLAC
dynamic has been adopted.
2.4 Hong Kong Blasting Assessment Methodology (GEO Report No. 15)
In this document GEO specifies an analytical method for routine assessment of the
stability of soil slopes subjected to blasting vibration using the pseudo-static approach.
The proposed method takes the dynamic responses of soil slopes by a one dimensional
multi-degree-freedom model which takes into consideration the higher vibration modes
of the slope. By determining the critical acceleration from the slope stability analysisand estimating the corresponding magnification factor, the Critical Peak Particle
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 4/12
Velocity (PPVc) can be calculated. The PPVc calculated is used as the allowable limit
of blasting induced vibration that can be imposed on soil slopes in Hong Kong.
According to GEO Report 15, the PPVc
of soil slope subjected to blasting
vibrations with horizontal bedrock can beestimated by the following equation:
PPVc = |K c g / ω K a|
where K c is the pseudo static critical
acceleration of soil derived
from static stability analysis;
g is gravitational acceleration;
ω is circular frequency of the
ground motion (2π *
frequency in Hz);
K a is magnification factor, see Fig. 1;S is shear wave velocity of soil,
usually assumed to be 300m/s.
3 ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY OF THIS STUDY
FLAC uses the explicit finite difference method to solve the full equation of motion us-
ing lumped grid point masses derived from the surrounding finite elements. It uses an
updated Lagrangian procedure for coping with large deformations. FLAC has been ex-
tensively used to model dams and slopes in dynamic analyses, e.g. Kong (2003), Chugh
& Stark (2005), Cetin & Isik (2005) and Marcuson et al. (2007). The application of
dynamic FLAC for seismic analysis had been validated with other well accepted onedimensional non-linear soil response analysis programs in the United States, such as
program SHAKE (Itasca Consulting Group, 1993). It is a simple and direct method to
consider the non-linearity of soil and earthquake time history analysis. For this study,
two dimensional analyses have been carried out using FLAC version 6.0 with the dy-
namic option.
3.1 Slope Geometries and Material Properties
A typical cut slope which is 10m high and has a slope angle of 45° has been considered.
The slope is formed in a soil produced from granite which has been subjected to intense
tropical weathering. This soil is known as completely decomposed granite (CDG) and
in the model is underlain by moderately decomposed granite (MDG) which is assumed
to be rockhead (Fig. 2). The slope is assumed to be dry. The material properties are
determined from the range of static and dynamic parameters recommended in GEO
Geoguide 1 (1993) which are listed in Tables 1 and 2 and are considered to be typical
parameters in Hong Kong.
Arup, have previously carried out laboratory cyclic tri-axial tests on CDG in association
with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The small strain shear
modulus (G0) of the materials was determined from bender element tests, while the
shear modulus degradation (G/G0) and damping were assessed. The details of the testscan be found in Leung et al. (2010) and the results have been used to model the shear
modulus degradation of the CDG.
Fig. 1 K a vs y/H for slopes withhorizontal bedrock
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 5/12
Fig. 2 The 45o cut slope with horizontal bedrock base model
Table 1. Material properties of CDG Table 2. Material properties of MDG
Soil Model Mohr-Coulomb Rock Model Elastic
Density ρ 1900 kg/m3 Density ρ 2400 kg/m3
Poisson’s Ratio ν 0.3 Poisson’s Ratio ν 0.25
Shear Wave Velocity
Vs 300 m/s
Shear Wave Velocity
Vs 1000 m/s
Initial Shear Modulus
G0 = ρ Vs2 171 MPa
Shear Modulus
G = ρ Vs2 2400 MPa
3.2 Static and Pseudo-static Analysis
The static and the pseudo static FoS has been determined using the limit equilibrium
method. Two slope models with the same geometry but different Mohr-Coulomb
strength parameters as listed in Table 3 have been considered. The program Oasys
Slope was used to find the constant horizontal acceleration required to give a FoS of the
slope of unity. This pseudo static acceleration is termed the critical acceleration, Ac ofthe slope (Table 3).
Table 3. Static FoS and critical acceleration of the two slope models
Soil strength Static FoSCritical Acceleration,
Ac
Critical Blasting PPVc
(GEO Report No. 15)
CDG in Model 1
(c’=5 kPa, φ’=370)1.2 0.11 g 20 mm/s
CDG in Model 2
(c’=7.5 kPa, φ’=39
0
)
1.4 0.23 g 40 mm/s
3.3 Boundary Conditions and Initial Conditions
The boundary conditions of the slope model in the FLAC static and dynamic analyses
are shown in Figure 3. The boundary at the base of the static model is fixed in both x-
and y-direction and the vertical side boundaries are fixed in x-direction. For the dy-
namic model boundary conditions, free-field boundaries are coupled to simulate an infi-
nite domain and to ensure that dynamic waves are not reflected at the side boundaries.
Gravity acceleration is applied to the model and run until an equilibrium state is ob-
tained. The equilibrium state of the geometry can be assured from the horizontal andvertical displacement histories and when the unbalanced force diminishes. Once static
CDG
MDG
10m
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 6/12
equilibrium is reached, the displacements are redefined as zero. Earthquake or Blasting
records are input along the base of the model in terms of a velocity time history. The
time histories of the displacement, velocity, and acceleration at various locations of the
slope face have been predicted. Soil damping is critical and the damping implied by
the non-linear hysteretic soil model of the CDG is used in this study.
(a) (b)
Fig. 3 Boundary conditions for the slope model: (a) static; (b) dynamic
4 INPUT DYNAMIC LOADING
4.1 Earthquake Motion
A probabilistic seismic hazard assessment study has recently been undertaken by Arup
to estimate the potential seismic ground motion levels on bedrock in Hong Kong (Pap-
pin et al., 2008). The calculated rock outcrop ground motion having a 10% probability
of being exceeded in the next 50 years is presented in Figure 4 in terms of a velocity re-
sponse spectrum. The peak acceleration and peak velocity of this earthquake ground
motion are 12% g and 32 mm/s respectively. The input earthquake velocity time his-
tory is shown in Figure 5.
Fig. 4 Earthquake and blasting velocity response spectra on rock sites
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10
S p
e c t r a l V e l o c i t y ( m / s )
Period (sec)
10% in 50year EQ(PGV=32mm/s)
Blasting record(PPV=29mm/s)
5% damping
Slope Angle
Slope Height
50 m
Slope Angle
Slope Height
50 m
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 7/12
Fig. 5 Earthquake velocity time history
4.2 Blasting Motion
The blasting record used in this study was obtained from a detailed blast monitoring at a
site formation development in Hong Kong in 2009. The blasting vibrations were re-
corded at the location of the geophones in three orthogonal directions. Figure 6 shows
velocity response spectra of the site measurements on rock with peak particle velocity
(PPV) between 23 mm/s to 101 mm/s. By normalising to a PPV value to 1 m/s a de-
sign normalised response spectral shape can be obtained as shown in Figure 7. A re-corded event with a PPV of 29mm/s was chosen to match the peak ground velocity of
the 10% in 50 year earthquake event for comparison purposes. The velocity time his-
tory and response spectrum of the blasting record from a rock outcrop are shown in Fig-
ure 8 and Figure 4, respectively. It is worthy to note that the peak acceleration of the
blasting record is about 65% g. The time duration of a blasting event is normally about
one or two seconds. Figure 7 shows that the frequency content of the different blasting
records are quite consistent with a similar shape and a peak response at about 0.03 sec-
onds which is consistent with the 30Hz frequency assumed in GEO Report No. 15.
Fig. 6 Velocity response spectra of the Fig. 7 Velocity response spectra
site measured blasting records on rock outcrop normalised to a PPV of 1 m/s
Fig. 8 Blasting velocity time history
Time [sec] 302520151050
V e l o c i t y [ m m / s e c ] 30
20
10
0
-10
-20
-30
Time [sec]
1.51.41.31.21.110.90.80.70.60.50.40.30.20.10
V e l o c i t y [ m m / s e c ]
30
20
10
0
-10
-20
0.01
0.1
1
10
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
S p e c t r a l V e l o c i t y n o r m a l i s e d t o P P V = 1 m / s
Period (s)
Test 15 (Max PPV=101 mm/s)
Test 3 (Max PPV =70 mm/s)
Test 9B (Max PPV=32 mm/s)
Test 9C (Max PPV=25 mm/s)
Test 18 (Max PPV=23 mm/s)
Test 5 (Max PPV=29 mm/s)
Design
5% damping
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
S p e c t r a l V e l o c i t y ( m / s )
Period (s)
Test 15 (Max PPV=101 mm/s)
Test 3 (Max PPV=70 mm/s)
Test 9B (Max PPV=32 mm/s)
Test 9C (Max PPV=25 mm/s)
Test 18 (Max PPV=23 mm/s)
Test 5 (Max PPV=29 mm/s)
5% damping
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 8/12
5 FLAC ANALYSES
The results are presented in Table 4 and examples of the output displacement contour
plots are presented in Figures 9 and 10. It was found that earthquake induced move-
ments are generally shallow in the examples of this study. For a slope with a static FoS
of 1.4, it was found that the maximum resultant displacements at slope crest subject toearthquake load of 475 years is 10mm. However, the maximum displacement in-
creases to 60mm when the static FoS reduces to 1.2 (Table 4). When the slope is sub-
jected to the blasting load, the movement is shallower (Figure 10) and the maximum re-
sultant displacement at the slope crest is 8mm for the slope having a static FoS of 1.2
and the induced displacement for the slope having a static FoS of 1.4 is negligible being
less than 1mm. A slope having a displacement in excess of 70 mm is usually consid-
ered to be at significant risk of failure. ASCE/SCEC (2002) recommends that a 50mm
threshold displacement be used for typical slope construction.
Relative vertical displacement Relative vertical displacement
Relative horizontal displacement Relative horizontal displacement
Fig. 9 Static FoS 1.2 subject to Fig. 10 Static FoS 1.2 subject to
earthquake motion blasting motion
Table 4. Maximum relative resultant displacement at the slope crest
Dynamic LoadPGA/ PPA
(g)
PGV/ PPV
(mm/s)
FoS=1.2
(mm)
FoS=1.4
(mm)
Earthquake 0.12 32 60 10
Blasting 0.65 29 8 0.6
The results indicate that with similar peak ground / particle velocity, the blasting in-
duced slope displacement is significantly less than that from earthquake loading. This
is thought to be due to the significant differences in the frequency content of the two vi-
bration types. Figure 4 shows that the blasting spectrum has a much higher frequencycontent than the earthquake spectrum with similar peak spectral velocity. Therefore, in
addition to PPV, the frequency content of the loading is also critical to the determina-
40 mm
20 mm
0 mm
10 m
50 mm
0 mm
7.5 mm
0 mm
10 mm
0 mm
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 9/12
15D:Toe
measurement
15C:Crest
measurement
15E: Rock surface
measurement
10m
70°Slope
209mPD
tion of the dynamic load induced displacement. An additional factor is the length of
time that the slopes are subject to the vibration load. Comparing the time histories
shown in Figures 5 and 8 indicates that the earthquake motion duration is at least 10
times that of the blasting.
The FLAC results imply that conventional pseudo static rigid block analysis may not bea good predictor of slope displacement as the soil slope model is not behaving as a rigid
structure over a well defined failure surface. The slopes behave in a more diffuse man-
ner, more similar to a stack of cards than a solid block.
6 SITE MEASUREMENT AND NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF BLASTING
At an ongoing site formation project in Hong Kong a trial has been carried out to meas-
ure the response of a 4.5 m high slope cut into CDG with an angle of 70°, located ap-
proximately 25 m from a blast. The slope was monitored with geophones at the toe and
the crest, and an additional geophone was placed on a nearby rock outcrop. Figure 11
shows the set up of the monitoring locations and the inferred geological section from borehole data is shown in Figure 12. A back analysis using FLAC dynamic (Figure 13)
has been carried out to compare the calculated slope crest response spectrum to that
measured on site. The input blasting time history used in the dynamic analysis was
based on the rock outcrop measurement (Location A in Figure 11) at a similar level to
the blast rock surface and at a similar distance from the blast source as that of the slope
location, since no direct measurement could be made at the rock surface under the slope.
The input is that of Blast 15 shown in Figure 6.
Fig. 11 Set up of the site measurement Fig. 12 Inferred geological section
The results are summarised in Table 5 and Figure 14 shows the comparison of response
spectrum between the FLAC analysis and the site vibration measurement on site at the
crest of the slope (Location B in Figure 11). The residual soil slope lateral displace-
ment relative to rock calculated by FLAC is about 10mm. This is consistent with the
site observation that some small centimetre sized fragments ravelled on the slope sur-
face, but no slope failure was noted. However, it seems that the estimated critical PPVc
based on GEO Report No. 15, as listed in Table 5, is very conservative for determining
the allowable PPV for slope blasting.
CDG
Rock
Blast
Direction
15C
70°Slope
15D
0 10 20 30
210
200
Section A‐A
E l e v a t i o n ( m P D )
m A
B
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 10/12
Table 5. Measured and predicted PPV’s
Soil parameters Site measurement FLAC analysisGEO Report
No. 15
Ac = 0.135 g
c’=7.5 kPa phi’=39o
Vs = 300 m/s
Rock
surface
Slope
crest
Rock
input
Slope
crest
Critical PPVc
101 mm/s 28 mm/s 101 mm/s 35 mm/s 9 mm/s
Figure 14 shows the comparison of the slope crest response spectrum between the
FLAC analysis and the site measurement. They agree quite well in the low period
range up to 0.1 seconds. It can be seen that there is a soil amplification of about 1.3 in
the period range of 0.1 and 0.3 seconds and at larger periods the FLAC result shows that
the slope crest and rock input spectra are very close to each other. However, the FLAC
result for the slope crest shows significantly higher spectral velocity than the site meas-
urement at periods above about 0.1 seconds.
Fig. 13 FLAC simplified model Fig. 14 Response spectrum comparison
This discrepancy at higher periods may be because the rock input motion to the FLAC
model is too large at periods larger than 0.1 seconds. The FLAC input rock motion
was recorded at Location A (see Figure 11) which is a different direction from the blast
source, although the distance from the blast source is similar. Site observation also
shows that the rock motion recorded to the side of the blast source (Location A) mayexcite higher vibrations at period range of 0.1 and 1 second than those at Location B in
front of the blast due to trapping of the blast waves behind the rock slope. The rock
motion recorded in Blast 5 (shown in Figure 6) was recorded at about 30m in front of
the blast. If the rock response spectrum of Test 5 is scaled to match the recorded
maximum spectral velocity of the rock input measured in Blast 15 (see Figure 14), it can
be seen that the shape of the response spectrum between Test 5 and recorded slope crest
match quite well at higher periods. Therefore, the frequency content of the rock input
response spectrum may significantly dominate the soil slope response. Further studies
could be considered to identify what effect source orientation has on the vibration re-
sponse. Also, the geometry and soil parameters of the FLAC model cannot be exactly
the same as the site conditions leading to other differences between the numericalanalysis and the site measurement.
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
S p e c t r a l V e l o c i t y ( m / s )
Period (s)
Rock input (from site record Test 15)
FLAC ‐
slope crest
Site record ‐ slope crest
Scaled rock spectrum (from site record Test 5)
5% damping
70o cut soil
Blasting input from rock
4.5 m
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 11/12
7 CONCLUSIONS
The dynamic performance of slopes subjected to earthquake and blasting ground mo-
tions have been investigated in this study. A simple and rational time history approach
has been presented and numerical analysis using dynamic FLAC has been carried out to
determine the dynamic load induced displacement in slopes. The advantage of usingthe time history analysis is that it allows the designer to assess the slope performance
using realistic earthquake or blasting records in the analysis and the soil non linearity
response can be considered. The output can be presented in terms of maximum dis-
placement, displacement contours and time histories which are useful to assess the ef-
fect of dynamic loading to any foundations or earth-retaining structures located within
or nearby the slopes.
Slopes with two different shear strength parameters have been considered in this study.
It was found that the frequency content and duration of the dynamic load is critical to
the resulting displacement in slopes. When subjected to a seismic ground motion hav-
ing a 10% chance of being exceeded in the next 50 years, the maximum resultant dis- placement at the crest of a 10 m high slope having a static FoS of 1.2 is calculated to be
60 mm. For a blasting record obtained from recent blasting works in Hong Kong, hav-
ing a PPV of 29 mm/s (similar to the PGV of the earthquake loading), the maximum re-
sultant displacement of the same slope crest is 8 mm. For a slope having a static FoS
of 1.4, the earthquake induced maximum displacement is 10 mm and the blasting in-
duced displacement is negligible. A slope having a displacement in excess of 70 mm is
usually considered to be at significant risk of failure. ASCE/SCEC (2002) recom-
mends that a 50mm threshold displacement be used for typical slope construction.
Velocity response spectra of the site measurements at rock outcrop for PPV recorded
from 23 mm/s to 101 mm/s have been presented and a normalised design response spec-tral shape was obtained. The comparison of the slope crest response spectrum between
FLAC analysis and site measurement for a 4.5 m high cut slope agree quite well in the
short structural period range less than 0.1 seconds. A more extensive sensitivity study
considering blasting orientation and slope parametric study, such as pore water pressure,
different slope geometry is proposed for the next stage of study.
REFERENCES
Ambraseys, N. and Menu, J. (1988). Earthquake-induced ground displacement. Earth-
quake Engineering and Structural Dynamics 16, 985-1006.
ASCE/SCEC (2002). Recommendation procedure for implementation of DMG special
publication 117 guidelines for analysing and mitigating landslide hazards in California.
Cetin, K.O. and Isik, N.S. (2005). A comparative study on the actual and estimated
seismic response of Kiralkizi Dam in Turkey. Journal of Earthquake Engineering 9:4,
445-460.
Chugh, A.K. and Stark, T.D. (2005). Displacement analysis of a landslide. Landslides
and Avalanches: ICFL 2005 Norway - Proceedings of the 11th International Confer-
ence and Field Trip on Landslides, Tromso, Norway, September, 73-81.
GEO Geoguide 1, 2nd Edition (1993). Geotechnical Engineering Office, Civil Engineer-
ing Department, Hong Kong Government.
7/24/2019 Koo-Dynamic Analyses of Slopes in Hong Kong
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/koo-dynamic-analyses-of-slopes-in-hong-kong 12/12
GEO Report No. 15 (1995). Assessment of Stability of /slopes subjected to Blasting
Vibration. Geotechnical Engineering Office, Civil Engineering Department, Hong
Kong Government.
GEO Report No. 65 (1996). Seismic hazard analysis of the Hong Kong region. Geo-
technical Engineering Office, Civil Engineering Department, Hong Kong Government.
GEO Report No. 98 (1998). Preliminary Quantitative Risk Assessment of Earthquake-
induced Landslides at Man-Made Slopes in Hong Kong. Geotechnical Engineering Of-
fice, Civil Engineering Department, Hong Kong Government.
Itasca Consulting Group (1993). FLAC – Fast Langrangian Analysis of Continua, Ver-
sion 4, User’s Manual. Itasca Consulting Group, Inc, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Kong, W.V. (2003). Earthquake Induced Displacements of Slopes in Closely Jointed
Rock Masses. ME Thesis, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Leung, E., Pappin, J. and Koo, R. (2010). Determination of Small Strain Modulus and
Degradation for In-situ Weathered Rock and Old Alluvium Deposits. 15th International
Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dy-namics, San Diego, California.
Marcuson, W.F., Hynes, M.E. and Franklin, A.G. (2007). Seismic design and analysis
of embankment dams: the state of practice. Proceedings of the 4th Civil Engineering
Conference in the Asian Region, June 25-28, Taipei.
Newmark, N.M. (1965). Effects of earthquakes on dams and embankments. Geotech-
nique 15, 139-160.
Pappin, J.W. and Bowden, A.J.H. (1998). The likelihood of earthquake induced land-
slides in Hong Kong. Slope Engineering in Hong Kong, 177 – 184.
Pappin, J.W., Koo, R.C.H., Free, M.W. and Tsang, H.H. (2008). Seismic hazard ofHong Kong. Special Issue, Electronic Journal of Structural Engineering 8, 8-21.
Sarma, S.K. (1975). Seismic stability of earth dams and embankments. Geotechnique
24, 743-761.